Sara Tilley

“it is queer how when you got time by yourself & are getting on in life your brain can play tricks
You might be having a normal morning
Putting sheep shit on the vegetables & then for no reason at all you get this wave of memory come over you so strong you have to sit down there in the dirt for fear you might keel over

probably some stupid little memory
Something you haven’t thought of for years
But it comes back so strong you feel undone
You have no defence against it
& then you’re crying into the shit & strawberry plants & no one can tell you to stop it or hand you their dirty pocket rag to dry your eyes with, because there’s no one left
You finally got the Peace & Quiet you thought you was after all these years
& now that it’s here, you wish there was something to fill it back up again.

I say You but I mean Me
These days I live more in my mind than on the ground
The Past seems more real than what I spend my time doing.”
― Sara Tilley, Duke